Standing at my doorstep, a Jehovah's witness cries, 
she's calling me to worship some judge up in the sky,
but I don't think so my my. 

She say's that I'm a sinner and I guess she's probably right
I've manipulated women to keep me company at night
and I haven't been to church since my brother died in Belfast.

I appreciate her solicitations, they don't fall on stony ground,
and I bow before her goodness and the wisdom she has found,
but I don't need her coming around- I'm in Heaven.

Ave Maria, my little star of the sea.

I was strung out I was wrung out, hungover and ashamed,
drinking in a churchyard when someone called my name,
I thought it was my girlfriend, she sometimes plays these games
just to haunt me, to taunt me, to shower me in shame.

I don't know what i can tell you, the light was breaking in the East,
she had a child in her arms, she had a snake beneath her feet,
and she told me many secrets that I just can't repeat, 
Well, why would I ?

AveMaria, My little goddess of the sea.

And back here on my doorstep with this woman who would heal
 the cripples in the suburbs and all of those who feel
that to give it all away to something that might not be real,
It's crazy. Is it crazy ?

Ave Maria....

Ave Maria and a bottle of rum.

Here's something  brief. Sounds like i've ladled on the reverb a bit but there was no stopping myself.

Old Lovers

Still here, dancing at the end of time.  Here is a ditty. Love..Love...Love.

Halloween in the Suburbs

My old mac  dieth a death so here's a bit of a kitchen table bash around .   My fingers are not what they were so i play what i can find.  someday I'll probably wind up bashing out a beat with my head on the refrigerator and singing along. I hope you are all well. If you're dead you'll obviously know it's nothing to worry about...                                I woke up this morning or at least I think that I did...I found my medication and I wrestled with the lid....my bathroom mirror is telling me that I'm not half the man I used to be.....

. I've got a hole in my gut I'm really feeling my age, I'm paying the price for my wicked little ways, I was out last night with a woman from the moon, she says that better days are coming and they're coming soon but I ain't half the man I used to be.

Half the Man.

little fly hanging in a spiders web-
he's been pumped full of poison but he still ain't dead
Oh Lord, O Lord how'd you think of THAT !
Friend of mine- it's crying shame
he's got a well designed virus eating at his brain
o lord. o lord how'd you think of that?

Sometimes I feel so far from home.

Jesus Christ came to save our skins
goodness me, look what we did to him-was that your masterstroke ?

God is Love-o but then again
the only mercy i see comes from the hearts of men,
how did you think of that?


So Far From Home.

Been writing about methane holes in the arctic and fascists but who needs more of that stuff ? Here's some old heart song instead.

A Hard Woman.

Memoirs of dopeness montage borderline blue and all tht jazz.



There's snow on the mountain but i don't get cold.
I got the sweet fires of heaven burning in my soul.
I'm a lucky man-now ain't that divine.
I'm biding my time.
Writing songs for the preachers on the borderline.

I drank a lot of whisky-I smoked a bit of dope
i had a whole lot of fun on a slippery slope,
I was a villain once , in my own pantomime.
drawing circles in the dust on the borderline.
I'm biding my time

I know some day that i'm going to die,
an old man will turn into a butterfly.
I've felt the claw, I've seen the sign.
I'm just biding my time
selling trinkets to the tourists on the borderline.

I don't drive a car and I don't eat meat
I wear plastic sandals upon my feet,
and everything I try to hold-well it's not really mine.
I'm just biding my time
shedding my skin on the borderline.

I bought a guitar and I wrote myself a song,
I've got this dislocated feeling that I don't belong,
but if you ask me how I'm doing- I'll say 'I'm doing fine'
I'm just biding my time- I thought I saw Bob Dylan on the borderline.

I've marched with the lovers and the great oppressed,
I kept the red flag flying but I was not impressed.
My alliance lay, not with this paradigm.
I'm biding my time-counting the soldiers on the borderline.

I sold myself to a woman for a music-room,
I was dragon-tense, she was strange perfume,
but the gods of love- they deemed this a crime.
Now I'm just biding my time- trouble with a woman on the borderline.

Dancing with the Gypsies.............
Drawing circles in the dust...................
etc...............

General Pinochet, Dear Sir..........."You gave me to the soldiers sir, you gave me to the dogs, you gave me to the Patriots. It was your country. I was the girl from La Serena, barely seventeen, a bloodstain on the history of our nation.  ...................


Trouble on the Borderline.

I'm living in a ghost town, between the mountains and the sea, 
it's really just a shell and as far as i can tell, there is nobody living here but me
and these zombies, who are clawing at my door. 
I 've got vampires in a crypt, and that ain't the end of it,
i've got were-wolves=you can hear them roaring
in the ghost town, where I'm living now.

There's a woman, I think she's dead, my skin crawls,
she rattles my chains and she calls out my name
and then walks right through the walls of this ghost town. Where i'm living now.

I've got a fever rattling in my bones, if i don't make it through, what i'd like for you to do
is to call this place my home.
My home is a ghost town, between the living and the dead, 
if i am not mistaken i think i've been forsaken
i've been left for dead in this ghost town,

between the mountains and the sea............

Living in a Ghost Town.

Early morning porch song.
Americana stylee.

It's a bit long but the birds are singing.

There ain't no trains, no cotton, no jobs, no fish no women no preacher etc.
Pic taken from my porch at sunrise after a spring snowfall.


No Trains.   (Porch song 1 )

Who do you think you are ?

A pirate has been captured.  He dreams........

Pirate Dreams.


They have me now, racked beneath the crucifix,
hauling kelp upon my back.

They have me now, chained to my confession,
i don't know how I'll ever get back to the sea.

But when at night I dream,  there is no holding me,
my sails are filled with the southern breeze.

Pirate dreams, these pirate dreams,
far away from the orphan land
cutthroats under my command.

Pirate dreams, these pirate dreams
sacks of gold and strings of pearls
sunlit seas and island girls.

When at night i dream, there is no holding me,
i give myself to the raging sea.

They have me now, racked beneath the crucifix
i can feel the lash upon my pirate dreams.

Pirate Dreams

I've been collecting berries and laying in stores . so, i ran into this in the files, perhaps my fave collab. I have, i hope, sharpened it a little in the mix and mastering, basically got rid of the fx.
Lammbone is very apparent,bold and joyful. Rory from Textosh is weaving a sublime harp through it all. I took his slide off the track so the harp could sing a little more clearly.

The nights are long, but I don't care,
I'm hunkered down, I'm like a grizzly bear
and if you don't bother me....I wont bother you.
I'm dug in deep, I'm just trying to sleep,
I've got the hibernation blues.

etc

Hibernation Blues with Killingbeck Lammbone and Textosh. REMx et REMst

In the City of Bath there is a small vulva shaped park with a bandstand where, on a sunday afternoon one could, if so inclined, buy LSD. 
Forty   or so years ago my girlfriend and I spent an afternoon there.
I have no idea what brought this to mind. Getting old I guess.....

There's a bubble in the mainline, there's a stirring in the crowd,
I could almost feel the silver lining in the cloud.
There's a fracture in the system and the truth is breaking through
to where Heaven is a city park, freaking out with you.

Her dress was pale blue cotton, crinkle-hemmed in lace,
a Laura Ashley sunhat threw a shadow on her face.
It was all so 'Sergeant Pepper's ', we even had the band,
you and me on LSD, waiting at the ice-cream stand.

And the punks down by the river, they were drinking Special Brew,
we threw them down some cigarettes and a little wave from you.
There were herons in the rushes, there were electric dragonflies,
there was a universe of wonder reflected in your eyes.

Our love was young, a month or two, the awkward part was done,
a pair of tripped-out love birds laughing in the sun.
And there was sugar at the bandstand on a sunday afternoon
and heaven was a city park tripping out with you.

Tripping Out In The City Park.

Mr Lammbone sliding around on this little song.

A beautiful mess. (Feat Mark Lammbone)

Was it only yesterday when I was young and mean
travelling through the desert with my junkie queen
I was doing what I had to do to keep her clean,
I remember.

Claudine in a hotel with a candle and a spoon,
she thought she was in heaven when she opened up that wound
I ought to leave her, leave her soon
but I love her.

I've got nothing in my pockets, scorpions in my shoes.
I'm so hot I just keep melting into you,
I'm the deepest, deepest shade of blue
and I'm crazy-I wrote your name in the sand.

The stars over Goulamine, they have never burned so bright,
Me and little Claudine, we saw a shooting star tonight.
Is this a sign we're going to be alright ?
Well I hope so.

They're out of ammunition, there's a convoy coming through.
Someone stole my passport, hey but what's a boy to do?
I'm going back to Paris and I'm getting rid of you
To your mother.

So wake up ,little dreamer, let me take you by your hand,
I'd like to show you something that might help you understand
how every little thing has been so carefully planned,
I was crazy-I wrote your name in the sand.

Oasis Dreams  with Izzy

Tom Adams made a sublime country tune open for collab.   I worked something into it.

Do you remember much about last night, or is it just a foggy picture in your head,
the drunken taxi ride, the bar-room fight,
and how you came to be here in my bed ?

I think somebody hurt you once, but you don't like to say,
maybe you will talk to me someday.
You come to me when the moon is full or when it all just gets too much,
I've got a feeling that you just come here for my loving touch.

And some of us are nervous, like we're taken by surprise,
some of us are angels with the devil in our eyes,
some of us are weary of the burden on our backs
and some of us are falling through the tracks.

Now I sit and watch you sleep in the hour before the dawn,
lying in the arms of Morpheus you're looking pretty torn,
your dreams are growing dangerous, I can hear the sound
of a thousand worried whispers going down.

And some of us are delicate, it's always been that way,
and some of us are snowflakes, we simply fade away,
some of us are weary of the burden on our backs,
and some of us are falling through the cracks.

Falling through the cracks.  *Tom Adams Open Collab

I've been listening to some guitar blues .   Keitonie 
  https://soundcloud.com/keitonie  caught my attention.  he was born to this stuff.       I tried to sing along to some tracks he had up and it wasn't so easy.  I either sounded like an elvis impersonator, or someone trying to take a dump.  After dozens of tries i began to feel my way into the music... 

The Girl in the Mirror......say's I'm a fool
for being so careless....for losing you.
I think I'll go out fishing....catch myself a trout
might get lucky, get lucky catch a rainbow trout.

The river's running .......wide and clear
fish are jumping.....just below the weir
damson flies have settled..... on the rim of my hat
sometimes I'm lucky,....sometimes i'm lucky like that.

Living without you....is getting strange
there's something about you....that was always out of range
even the flowers in our garden...are missing you
i'm not fishing for forgiveness,....i would not expect that from you.

the girl in the mrror etc.

The Girl in the Mirror........Keitonie...Spanishlillie Collab.

Thank you so much Keitonie for putting up such a great track,https://soundcloud.com/keitonie.  He has a funky page.

Keitonie .stevek .First Glance

Another one with that fine electrical guitarist Mr Keitonie.     Keitonie has a track on his site.....Funky Blues...  I put a song to it, sent it back and he laid some wild and appropriate lead to it. It's worth a listen.  

I'm the thunder in the desert
i'm the man who reads your mail
i'm the cop that shot your brother and put his ass in jail
i'm the grande fromage.....I'm the biggest cheese
don't mess with me....i'm the biggest monkey in the tree

You may call me alpha male , you may call me mr brute
i've got the concessions on all the ripest fruit
there ain't nobody living can lay a finger on me
it's plain to see...i'm the biggest monkey on the tree

i'm the liar in your kitchen
i'm the darling of the press
i'm the gunman on the border, i'm the stains upon your dress
i'm a man of substance....I flatter to deceive
I'm a vip...i'm the biggest monkey on the tree

you may call me alpha male...you may call me mr d
i'm closing down the borders to the land of the free
you should see the weapons.. in my armoury
i think you would agree...i'm the biggest monkey in the tree

-==Thats roughly what i'm singing...

Biggest Monkey In The Tree. (Keitonie-killingbeck)

RogerBTrain at work here. Amazing work .               I've jumped in with a song (henceforth my new blues persona is The Rev Hugo von Scrotum ) 

I remember you, you were naked in my bed
you were a mistress of invention, all my appetites were fed.
but now you're god's girl.......you've been saved.
etc etc etc.

It's on download so if you're busy take it for later with a shot of something hot.

God's Girl   \Roger B train\ Steve Killingbeck

A Remix of something I did with Textosh some time ago.            Banjo and slide....Rory Textosh.... vocals and a bit o' harp and minimum keys stevek. Doodle mine LOL

Dying Again with Textosh

Hey, i've not really picked the guitar up or been near the innernet much this summer but i'm cowsitting for neighbours and they have wifi ,and a kids guitar in the toybox, so here's a friendly little ditty i'll probably work up a bit when the weather drives me into my cave during the winter.    

i've got a feeling someones watching me, 
everywhere i look there's cctv.
i'm going to the mountains 
ditto
ditto
going to run with the ravens and the hares.

People dressed in uniform everywhere i look
somebody wrote my name down in a little red book
i'm going to the mountains 
ditto
going to run with the eagles and the bears.

the water tastes so sweet and the air is so pure,
all the fine people that you meet 
and every breath you take is like taking a cure.

there are rich men building robots, what are they for ?
they're going to take the bread out of the mouths of the poor
i'm going to the mountains 
ditto
going to run with the cougar and the deer.

Going To The Mountains

I'm getting worse as i get older.  This one is for John Wayne and all the pilgrims out there.         Includes language most foul.

Campfire Pilgrim Songs. Number One.

Based loosely on a 'vermin hunter' who i once ran across in county Clare. I've always been on the side of Mr Fox so we were not the best of friends.  
Here are four verses of the dozen or so that tell the tale.  I used a few garageband noises too.  

Down the muddy track, five kittens in a sack,
down to the river, empty handed back.
Every year it happens just the same,
who is this man, what is his name ?
It's Dreadlocks Moriarty, he's the cruelest man in town,
Dreadlocks Moriarty, he's going to put your kitten down.

Are there foxes in your henhouse, are there pigeons in the corn,
are there wabbits in your garden, are there badgers on the lawn ?
etc


They say he had a wife once and she got sick
so he beat her to death with a hurley stick.
Now she's buried in the mountains where the cold wind blows,
and the cattle die in the winter snow.
That's Dreadlocks Moriarty, his donkey;s all look sad,
Dreadlocks Moriarty, How did you ever come to be so bad.

Moriarty has a daughter, she's a comely lass
with a crucifix and a dancer's ass,
i tried to woo her once beneath the  rowan tree
but we were seen and now he's coming for me,
Dreadlocks Moriarty, how did a man ever go so wrong ?
Dreadlocks Moriarty, I'm going to kill you with a song.

Back to the river.... something has survived, it'a a half-drowned kitten and it's still alive,
i hold it to my breast and my beating heart,
i was looking for some friends and this is a start
dreadlocks etcetcetcetc

The Ballad of Dreadlocks Moriarty.

My New years resolution is to have a less pessamistic outlook. We'll see how long that lasts.

Campfire Pilgrim Songs  (Number 2 )

Dancing at the End of Time

Talk to me- well at least say something...........
How does it feel now the cull has passed you by ?
Good friends we lost- they were drowned and broken,
you say that you're alright- I see a shadow cross your eye.
Sail away sailor girl

Tell me a tale about your life on the ocean
before the storm that blew you to my door.
Was the sun on your skin ?
Did you make it to the islands?
Was there treasure at your feet,
were the trade winds blowing through your hait ?
Sail away sailor girl.

Now you wave from the deck but there's nobody watching you,
the beaches are deserted and this harbor's seen better days.
Your sails are set-there's a fair wind rising,
I'm not the kind of man who's gonna wave you goodbye.
Sail away sailor girl....

Sea Shanti

Back when the world was old style 'normal' and I was young and mad for love i knew this girl.......... 
I hope you're all well out there and you and your families are navigating the new normal......."New Normal" Who came up with that ?  Has there ever been a time when the madmen were not at the helm ?  That nice lady who is leading New=Zealand should be made Queen of the world. I'd sleep a lot easier.   I hope you enjoy this love song.

You say that you're a goddess......I could have told you that,
as you adopt a position on your yoga mat.
I'm on my knees, I've got one eye on the door,
little queen of heaven, lying on the floor.

Standing in the river where the fishes swim,
waste deep and dappled, you've got freckles on your skin.
Flowers in the meadow, big bird in the sky,
thunder in the mountains, and laughter in your eye.

I trace the patterns, on your summer dress,
just to feel you tremble, and just to make you guess.
Living in the moment, we've got nothing planned,
an extraordinary woman and an ordinary man.

An Extraordinary Woman. (Steve K.)

Borderline Blues

There's no running from the blue these days, probably get shot at the border the way things are going.  Here we are, hitching a ride with the Maestro Keton again, having a bash at singing the blues.  Be well. https://soundcloud.com/keitblues
I have heard rumours and I think they might be true,
all about a friend of mine who was stealing time from you.
etc
I bought myself a ticket for a trip around the world,
was I looking for that inner light, was I looking for a girl..etc

I've slept on beaches and I've danced beneath the stars,
dreaming a thousand dreams in a thousand different bars etc

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